Longtime Cherry Grove breakfast restaurant with controversial name appears closed
A longtime favorite breakfast spot among locals in the Cherry Grove area of North Myrtle Beach appears closed for good.
The sign for Tar Baby’s Pancakes, off Sea Mountain Highway, has been removed, and Horry County land records show the property was recently sold.
The restaurant has been in business for more than 30 years, according to South Carolina business records. Ernie Younts, listed as the restaurant’s owner, did not immediately return a voicemail seeking confirmation of the closure.
A retail listing for the property, listed at $1.2 million, states that the owner is retiring and that the real estate sale is not a business sale.
Nick Sherfesee, listed as the selling agent for the property, confirmed that the property was recently sold, but declined to provide the name of the new owner.
The restaurant has drawn criticism from tourists on social media in the past for its name and sign, which features a black-colored character wearing a hat who’s sitting next to a stack of pancakes.
The Oxford American Dictionary defines tar baby as “a difficult problem that is only aggravated by attempts to solve it.” But there is also a second definition listed, which says it is a “contemptuous term for a black person.”
“The use as a racial slur arose by the 1940s, and because of its highly offensive nature, the original meaning is now often regarded as offensive by association,” the dictionary states.
The figure on the sign resembles a character in the Uncle Remus stories by Joel Chandler Harris, in which one of the characters Br’er Fox made a doll of tar and turpentine.
